I’ve been meaning to put a few of my thoughts about Pope Francis together but lacked the impetus needed to force myself in front of the blank page. Not that I haven’t scribbled a bit about him before:
I’ve been reading the media’s seeming adoration for this Pope with a sardonic grin as they figuratively swoon at his every declaration of what otherwise rational people would hold as fairly obvious positions, whether they be that being gay is probably not something worth condemning someone for, or that living organisms on Earth evolve, or that capital punishment is a pretty extreme, while popular, form of punishing the more heinous offenders of our laws. It’s a fairly clear illustration of just how behind the times the Catholic Church is when its leader makes a relatively benign statement about society or scientific knowledge and it is trumpeted as progress.
But the Pope recently provided the little nugget of delusion I needed to break out the whisky and begin to type. After applauding the efforts of the International Association of Exorcists for their excellent work in this time of increased demonic activity, the Pope left no doubt that he believes in the bogeyman:
Now you may think that it’s not breaking news that Catholics believe there really is an immortal invisible bad guy with horns, a tail, a forked tongue and a pitchfork leading a band of imps and evil demons who terrorize and influence world events, but allow me to add a wrinkle to this topic for your consideration. The Supreme Court ruled, in the review of a death penalty case in the state of Texas, that the state could not execute a man who was suffering from a severe, documented mental illness that is the source of gross delusions. The severe mental illness this particular defendant was suffering from was a delusion that the devil had possessed his home. He ended up murdering his wife’s parents and while in prison, even under significant quantities of anti-psychotic drugs, continues to believe he is a pawn of spiritual warfare between demons and the forces of darkness, and God, His angels, and the forces of light.¹
So the Supreme Court of the land has stated that this man, who believes in precisely what the Pope believes, and what the Pope urges everyone to believe, is so insane that he suffers from severe mental illness. Seemingly by the Court’s definition, the leader of the Catholic Church is bat shit crazy. Only under the guise of faith can a person believe otherwise insane things and be fawned over by the press and the world’s political leaders.
I maintain my position that until this Pope makes an official declaration that everything the Catholic Church has been teaching is complete and utter fabricated nonsense, maintained solely for the purpose of keeping the entire grandiose structure, with all its tax benefits, criminal protections and wealth generating schemes in place should anyone applaud him or give him any more intellectual consideration than we give that deluded man sitting on death row in Texas. While I have no reason to suspect this particular Pope has murdered anyone (although his predecessors have a lot of blood on their hands), surely using his leadership position to terrorize the minds of his fellow humans, especially the children among us, with the spectre of invisible demonic forces ready at any moment to possess them, or at least waiting to torture them for all eternity on a fiery lake of burning sulfur should be considered criminal activity. And according to the Supreme Court, criminally insane activity.
JD Espinoza 